CHANCES are you've seen the grand entry before. And the immense hallway. You've probably seen the kitchen, the dining room and a bedroom or two. Greystone Mansion, the house designed by Gordon Kaufman and completed in 1928 as a gift from oil tycoon Edward Doheny to his son, is a versatile estate that film crews descend upon often for its opulent beauty, acres of manicured grounds and Beverly Hills location.
But there's one room in the house -- a partially subterranean, two-lane bowling alley --that hadn't made it onto the big screen until Paul Thomas Anderson featured it in "There Will Be Blood," his epic saga that opened this week about an oil prospector in turn-of-the-century California. And the reason is simple: "There was nothing there," says Daniel Lupi, one of the movie's producers. Just water damage, crumbling plaster walls, rotted wood flooring and some junk. "It was basically used as a storeroom," he says.
Greystone Mansion: A Dec. 27 article in the Home section about the use of Greystone Mansion as a shooting location for "There Will Be Blood" said filmmakers chose the site based on scouting photos and prior knowledge that the basement contained a bowling alley. In fact, filmmakers visited the site, at which point they discovered the bowling alley.
Greystone Mansion: A Dec. 27 feature about the use of Greystone Mansion as a shooting location for "There Will Be Blood" said filmmakers chose the site based on scouting photos and prior knowledge that the basement contained a bowling alley. In reality, filmmakers visited the site, at which point they discovered the bowling alley.
"We looked all over Texas," says production designer Jack Fisk. "And in New Mexico." None of the mansions there was right. Then they looked at scouting shots of Greystone.
"It was built by an oil baron," Fisk says, succinctly explaining why the director -- and the rest of the team, including star Daniel Day-Lewis -- fell for the location.
"The scale was proper, and it's been kept up so well," Fisk says.
Plus, he adds, "we knew the house had a bowling alley in it."
With their limited budget, this pre-built set was a draw.
Soon after moving into the house in 1928 with wife Lucy and their five children, Edward "Ned" Doheny Jr. was killed by his personal secretary in what was deemed (but often questioned as) a murder-suicide. Lucy remarried and raised her children in the house. In 1955, when the children were grown, Lucy sold the property to a Chicagoan who had plans to subdivide and demolish the house. The city of Beverly Hills stopped the scheme by buying the historic estate in 1965 and -- hoping to get upkeep and repairs -- leased the mansion to the American Film Institute from 1969 until 1982 for a dollar a year.
In 1971, the estate became a city park, and in 1976 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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